Traditional print devices typically support the “pushing” of content to a print device from a second device. Most often, this involves a computer communicating with a print device. The communication may follow the format of a hard-wired connection interface, such as when a print device connects to a computer over a serial or parallel computer port. The communication might also follow a wireless connection such as that used for communication through an infrared light or radio frequency port. The basic operation in either case involves a device, e.g., a computer, linking to a print device, converting content into a format acceptable to the print device, and then transferring the content to the print device.
As an example, a computer printing a Microsoft Word document addresses a printer, converts the document data and format information into a printer ready format, and pushes the print content to the printer. The communication between the printer and the device is formatted according to protocols. Print servers that typically comprise software resident or cooperative with a data generating program translate the data into a printer format and otherwise convert print job data into a protocol useful for control of the print job.
Print devices for supporting these traditional models limit print operations in a number of disadvantageous manners. For example, one limitation relates to an inability of a print device to be used by second devices lacking means for converting data into a printer ready format. While this limitation may potentially be overcome by equipping the second device with a driver capable of translating the data, this is often impractical due to the number or size of drivers required to accommodate a variety of print devices and print jobs. This is particularly true for second devices having limited memory resources, such as portable devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, wireless data terminals, laptop computers, and the like.
These portable devices are faced with still additional limitations in using traditional print devices. Specifically, limited memory resources not only pose problems for storage of drivers, but likewise pose problems for storing content to be printed. Recent popularity of data files requiring relatively high memory resources such as graphics and photos, for instance, has further contributed to these problems. A proposed solution to these problems has been the addition of memory resources to the devices. This solution disadvantageously increases the cost, size, and weight of these devices, however. Additionally, even if these devices had the capacity to store more and larger data files for printing, they may face disadvantages associated with speed and reliability of communicating relatively large data files to a printer.
Advances in wireless communications have made these and other problems in the art more critical. Many portable devices such as cellular phones and PDA's can now communicate with one another as well as networked resources for widespread applications. By way of example, wireless communications may allow a user to connect with the Internet from a PDA or cell phone and surf websites. The problems discussed above, however, as well as others in the art have limited the practicality of such methods as the portable devices generally lack memory and communications resources for downloading, storing, and printing relatively large files.
Unresolved needs in the art therefore exist.